


Trace

by HeatherGiesbrecht



Category: Crimson Peak (2015)
Genre: Animal Metaphors, Aristocracy, Background Character Death, British English, British Slang, Brother/Sister Incest, Canonical Character Death, Chases, Children, Complete, Emotional Hurt, England (Country), Exhaustion, Extended Metaphors, F/M, Family, Forests, Goodbyes, Hiding, Horses, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Love, Lullabies, Mental Anguish, Mental Breakdown, Mental Institutions, Mild Language, Murder, Murderers, One Shot, POV Original Character, POV Outsider, Police, Pre-Canon, Pre-Crimson Peak, Separations, Sibling Incest, Sleep, Tears, Teenagers, Unhappy Ending, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-16
Updated: 2016-01-16
Packaged: 2018-05-14 08:37:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5736910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeatherGiesbrecht/pseuds/HeatherGiesbrecht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It'd been hours since they had found a trace of the Sharpe children. If the children were not found soon, much as he would hate giving the order, they would have to return to Harding Poole alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trace

Captain Leslie McPherson of the Harding Poole Police Constabulary repressed a sigh of frustration. Pippa too mirrored his frustration as she threw her head, tack jingling as she shifted in the snow-covered grass of the camp. His legs ached, his head throbbed terribly, and he'd not a good bite of food in near three days. One would not have thought it would be hard to track down two children, but these were the colloquially called Wilds of Cumberland, not a park in London-town. It'd been hours since they had found a trace of the Sharpe children.

If the children were not found soon, much as he would hate giving the order, they would have to return to Harding Poole alone. To hate Sir Michael and Beatrice Sharpe, he could see or Sir Michael at the least, the man'd depleted the mines thus depriving most of the townsfolk of work, but these were children. Young children who had quite possibly seen their mum's murder and fled in terror.

Private Salisbury burst from the thick forest on his bay and surged up to him. "Captain, Captain, by God, I found them ! It might've took near all bloody night, but I found 'em at last ! They're a few hundred feet in, a bigger clearing, the right middle like it were a great spiderweb. The boy's asleep, but the girl's wide awake, I-I think that she might 'ave seen me, sir."

"Ya did good, Salisbury, now we gotta git back at it." Blast, blast and balderdash ! Lucille was the reason they'd hidden for so long he was sure. She was the older one, the canny one, and if she'd seen Salisbury...they'd disappear again fast as lightning. His aches and pains near forgotten, McPherson half-leaped into his saddle, gesturing the men to fan out and begin the search again. "Quick-like, Pip, quick-like, there's a girl." If they could merely surround the clearing, leave Lucille with no option, except to give up, it could work.

Since unlike Salisbury they weren't searching every square of ground for tracks they did in fact manage to put his plan into action. As they tightened the circle, the two black haired, pale skinned children were the circle's white-clad center. When he dismounted the fourteen year-old girl's arms tightened around Thomas, her icily hued eyes, unblinking as an insect's, flashed in bestial rage. Thomas merely blinked the confusion of one struggling to separate dream from reality.

Slowly, he held up a hand, "We're not 'ere to hurt you, we just want ta bring yew 'ome 'n find out what 'appened to Lady Beatrice." while he approached.

Blunt as the back half of a shovel Lucille stated, "Mama died."

"Was 'er anyone in the house before ya left, did ya hear any strangers, eh, what ?"

The reply in an a tone that was almost smug, "No, Thomas and I were the only ones."

Her and Thomas only ? Horror at the implications stopped him dead. There was no way on Earth that so skinny a twelve year-old as Thomas could've split a woman's skull near in twain. Such as it was that left only Lucille, but she was a child...only fourteen. How could a child have... ? It was unthinkable. Perhaps, but look at that rage in her eyes it could give one far greater strength than one normally possessed. He had always heard the rumours of the children's lifeless eyes, of Lucille's inexplicable bruises and dismissed them as more hateful slander.

Salisbury had snuck up behind Lucille and grabbed her as he lunged to pull Thomas from the vise-like grip. The boy still seemed stunned, but at the quiet, "Lucille ?" she commenced to claw at Salisbury's arms while screaming, "Let him go, let him go ! I'm the Lady now, you have to listen to me. Let him go, you blue-bollocked, sheep-tit sucking bastard !"

Thomas didn't resist being put up on Pippa, the boy just stared down and across with quiet desperation at Lucille. All he heard was Salisbury swearing before Lucille jumped past him grabbing for the saddle. It seemed the only way to keep her from trying to kill them all was to put her behind Thomas, so he did. Obviously there was something very much wrong with Lucille's mental state, she was not fit to be Thomas's guardian. While he guided Pippa back to camp he noticed that the girl clung to her little brother, stroked his hair and sung some unfamiliar lullaby. The two days that it took to return to Harding Poole and the Constabulary only reinforced his opinion as Lucille bristled like a spider over her meal whenever Salisbury took Thomas to relieve himself or she insisted on feeding him. He'd seen to it before the search started that if found then Lady Beatrice's sister Florence would take Thomas in, so all he had to do was take Lucille to a good asylum down in London for treatment.

The news, of course, was not taken well. Thomas retreated into the blankness of sheer terror as Lucille snarled, "No ! We're supposed to be together. You're not taking him from me, you can't, he's mine !" It took him, Salisbury, and everyone else by surprise when she kissed her brother...on the lips...for what seemed a very long time before they could react. Three men, three men, simply to prize the children apart and a further two to restrain Lucille even after she was given laudanum.

No, Lucille was most definitely not fit for anything resembling normal life. She fell into sullen, angry tears as he escorted her out of the station and into a carriage to stare forlornly as Thomas rushed out. All he wanted to do was get away from Harding Poole so that he could try to forget what he'd just seen. The girl wouldn't be out of the asylum until she was 18, hopefully by then Thomas would have grown away from her. Unconsciously, he knew with the level of codependency shown it was not likely or else it would recommence the moment they saw each other. It was sad, but there was nothing else that he could do. 


End file.
